


The Force

by FlynnWriter



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Intrigue, Mystery, NCIS: LA - Freeform, Not too much, OC, OC gunshot wound, OC physcial whump, Self-Defense, a little bit of romance, deeks - Freeform, hawaiian mafia, hidden identity, kensi blye - Freeform, no beta we die like men, slight NCIS: LA crossover, steve mcgarret emotional whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:47:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 20,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23658583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlynnWriter/pseuds/FlynnWriter
Summary: Steve is a chauvinist and always wants to protect the women in his life. But when a new victim is hiding something, Steve's gut is churning and he is torn between his protective and investigative instincts. And when he finally finds out the truth, it might be too late for him to make up his mind.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Danny blamed the weather for his foul mood. It was just too damn nice outside. Any desire to commit a crime must have been dampened by the return of a fresh Hawaiian spring, when green things got greener and somehow, the sun got sunnier. Unlike everyone else on the island, though, Danny was borderline homicidal. No new crimes meant that the Five-O team was tackling their biggest foe--the pile of backlogged paperwork that had been sitting on their desks for months. Everyone had addressed it in their different ways--Kono was by far the most focused team member, but she was hampered by her ability to lose the most important form in her pile of papers, and she frequently had to stop and dig through it. Lou and Chin, both long-time cops, were used to the paperwork and knew how to file things away in the right order so that when they returned to the files it was easy to pick back up. Steve's time in the military meant that he too was used to overcoming a paper mountain, but as the boss of the team, his mountain was Everest compared to everyone else's. Danny's desk was littered with files that he picked up, glanced through, and put back down in search of a more scintillating file that had the potential to keep him awake for the remainder of the afternoon. "I need a case!" He slapped his current file down on his desk. "I'm dying." 

Lou leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms behind his head, taking a break from his own paperwork. "What's up Danno? You getting bored of Five-O?" 

"Just getting bored of you." Danny slung back at Lou.

"Ouch." Lou covered his heart mockingly. "That one hurt." 

Danny rolled his eyes, closed the file he was working on and stood up. "I'm taking an early lunch." It was only ten AM but the only thing Danny had thought about since getting in this morning was leaving for lunch, and it was driving him crazy.

As soon as Danny's hand was on the door, Steve's voice echoed through the atrium. "Danny, hold up. We got a call."

Danny groaned and stalked back to his desk as the team geared up. "Why? Why did you have to wait until I was hungry?"

"Isn't this what you've been begging for all day?" Lou asked. 

"Not exactly begging," Danny said, trying to defend himself.

"And not exactly all day...more like all week." Kono added. She whacked Danny's shoulder as she walked past him, letting him know it was meant in jest.

Chin Ho rolled he eyes and grabbed the keys to their SUV. "What are we looking at, Steve?"

Steve was scrolling through the report on his phone. "Early this morning there was a home invasion, gang involvement, one suspect dead."

"A biggie," Danno said. The rest of the team mumbled a response, but the mood had shifted as they all got into an appropriately serious mindset. As always, Steve slid himself into the driver side, slipped on his sunglasses, and began anxiously tapping the wheel with his fingers until Danny got in. The duo was quiet as Steve pulled out of the parking lot, and Steve looked lost in thought. Danny, who had been watching the world go by, looked back at Steve. "What's eating you?"

"This case already seems unusual. Gangs haven't been a problem in that neighborhood since it got gentrified a couple of years ago. What kind of housewife can take down a gang banger? There's got to be something else going on." 

Danny had pulled out his phone and was reading the details that Steve had forwarded to the team. "Do you think it's Yakuza?"

"If it is, it's gotta be low-level. There's been no chatter." Steve wasn't an anxious person, but Danny had learned to read his mood through the tension in his knuckles on the steering wheel. Steve spoke again as he pulled off the highway, "I don't know of any other gang on this island that would be secure enough to leave their territory."

"Doesn't look like HPD made any progress on motive either--turn left up here." They pulled up to the crime scene, parking behind a mess of black and whites and the Medical Examiner and CSI vans. In a neighborhood of two- and three-story homes, the small bungalow would not have attracted the attention of thieves looking to make money, so there had to be another reason for the break-in. The rest of the team pulled up behind Steve and hopped out, taking in the scene. On the front porch of the house, Duke was milling around with some detectives, and through the front door, the team could see a CSI tech snapping pictures of some evidence.

Steve pulled out his notepad and pencil as he surveyed the area. "Chin, Kono, take a look at the primary crime scene. Lou, check out the rest of the house, keep an eye out for anything strange. Danny, talk to the Medical Examiner, get her first impressions on the body. I'm going to talk to Duke, then interview the homeowner, get her side of things. Sound good?"

Kono and Chin nodded and went back to the SUV to grab what they needed, and the other three headed towards the house. "Duke!" Steve called out, waving him over. "Anything new?"

"Homeowner kept a Glock 17 for self-defense. She heard the glass break on the front door, pulled the gun, and shot him just after he got in. She said there were two others behind him, but they turned and ran after their buddy went down."

"Was she able to give a description?"

"Detective Mackey is talking to her in the backyard."

"Did you get an ID on the perp?" Steve looked up from his notepad.

"You'd have to ask the M.E., she was waiting for the print to run." 

"Thanks Duke." Instead of moving towards the house, Steve went to the sidewalk, making notes as he walked through the crime in his head. The intruders had entered from the front, as evidenced by the broken window, so it would make sense that they arrived at the house from the street or sidewalk. There weren't any tire tracks, but it didn't mean that they hadn't used a car. But it also could have been a bike, skateboard, or even their own two legs. There was no physical evidence to rule out anything.

Walking up the cement path to the door, Steve kept his eyes on the ground. There was a drop of something brown, and Steve called over a tech to swab it. "Can you catalog and test this?" He continued down the path to the door and thought he saw another drop.

"Commander?" Steve turned around to the tech, who held up the swab in a reaction vial. "It's not blood. We can look at it more in the lab, but to me, it just looks like oil of some kind. Maybe a lawnmower?"

"Thanks," Steve answered in disappointment. Stepping onto the porch, he did his best to avoid evidence markers that had been laid out. The men had broken in the window on the door and reached in to unlock the door. Chin walked outside to join Steve in looking through the doorway. "It was tempered?" Steve asked, referring to the tiny, blunted shards of glass.

"Yes, which is odd to see in a residential home," Chin stated, looking at his notes. 

"They had to know the glass was tempered, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to break it."

"It would have been loud, so they either knew she would be here and thought they could overpower her, or they expected it to be empty." 

Steve was silent as he rolled the information over his head and stepped further into the house. Aside from the glass and the body, the house looked...empty. The front room held an armchair, an old wooden desk, and a TV. There was an empty wine glass next to the chair and a knitted afghan strewn haphazardly on the floor, but no signs that the struggle had continued any further into the house. 

The intruder that lay on the floor was a young man with deep tan skin and dark hair that indicated native Hawaiian heritage. There were two bullet wounds, one through his sternum, and one slightly higher, above his left collarbone. Either one would individually be hard to survive but the pairing of the wounds would have killed anyone. Even so, a blue kitchen towel was strewn to the side; it looked like someone had used it to stop the bleeding. Danny made his way into the room to stand next to Steve and Chin. "M.E. said it's likely that a major vessel was torn, he bled out in seconds."

"Two shots, two hits?" Steve confirmed, not seeing any other bullet holes. 

Danny nodded. "HPD already processed the casings."

"What do you guys think?" Steve asked Chin and Danny. "Luck or skill?"

Danny folded his arms. "Skill. The intruder didn't even get further than the threshold before she got her shots off."

Chin agreed. "He has a gun tucked in the back of his pants, didn't even have time to pull it."

Steve continued through the front room, into the kitchen in the back of the house where Kono was looking around. He could see a young woman through the window, sitting in a patio chair and clutching a glass of water. "That her?"

Kono nodded. "Emma Frasier, age 29. Unis that were first on the scene said she was trying to stop the victim's bleeding when they arrived, and she was pretty shaken up."

"Kono," Steve said, staring out the window, "Sit in while I talk to her, I want to make sure she's comfortable."

"You got it, boss."

The two walked outside and approached the woman, watching her expression and behavior carefully. "Ms. Frasier? I'm commander Steve McGarrett with Five-O, this is Officer Kono Kalakaua. We'd like to talk to you about what happened."

The young woman straightened her back so she wasn't slouching. "Please have a seat, commander," she said, indicating the other deck chairs. "I gave a statement to Detective Mackey, but I can run through it again with you." Facing her, Steve amended his evaluation of her--she didn't seem all that rattled, just...tired.

"Please, call me Steve. Go ahead and start when you're ready; I might interrupt with some questions."

"You can call me Emma," She said quietly. She picked her water glass back up and turned it around in her hands, the first sign she had shown of nerves. "It was about oh-three-hundred, I was sleeping when I heard the glass break in the next room. I grabbed my phone and dialed 911, and I got my gun from the safe in the hall closet and I could hear them opening the door. I drew my weapon, told them to freeze, and put my phone down on the counter so I could use both hands to hold the gun. I made a mistake and looked down for a second... it was stupid, I know I should have kept watching them, but the one in front kind of came towards me and I just reacted. I shot twice, and I saw him go down, then I froze. The other two turned and ran out the door, they didn't even stop to look at the other one." She lapsed into silence.

"Are you the one that attempted CPR?" Steve prompted.

"Yes, I tried to stop the bleeding, but that didn't work, so I was trying to do CPR like they taught us in..." She cut herself off and thought for a beat. "...in a class I took one time."  
Kono and Steve made eye contact, seeing that the other one also noticed the lie. It was barely visible, but Steve could see tension in her brow that wasn't there before. He leaned forward. "Emma, have you ever been trained as a police or security officer? Or in the military?"

"What? No!" She stammered. "Why would you think that?"

"Just the language you used," Steve started. "You said the time was oh-three-hundred, you, quote, 'drew your weapon'."

"I used to have a friend that was a cop, I probably got it from him."

"Did he teach you how to shoot?" Steve asked.

"I have a gun and I practice with it so I can defend myself." Emma was getting defensive, and Kono put a hand on Steve's forearm to tell him to back down. He sat back in his chair, going over his pages of notes. 

"Emma," Kono started. "When did you move here? It doesn't look like you've settled in much."

Emma relaxed when Kono changed the subject. "I bought the place about four months ago, but I haven't had a ton of time to buy furniture." Kono opened her mouth, but Emma continued. "I used to live on the mainland, but I wanted something new." Steve was developing a feeling in his gut as he listened to their conversation. Her account of the break-in seemed sincere and reliable, but the minute they started asking questions about her background, she had been lying or ducking the question. Steve didn't get the impression she was all that comfortable with lying, but she was good at it.

The conversation was ending, but Steve had held some questions back. "Thank you, Emma, you've been helpful. We'll let you know when we have any updates." He and Kono walked away to where Danny, Lou, and Chin were waiting. 

"Something's off with her. When we get back, Kono, check her out. Lou, look into the house...figure out why it has tempered glass. Danny and Chin, reach out to gang division and get some more info about our banger. Let's get a better picture of what motivated them to break into a house in suburbia." As Steve walked back to the car with Danny, he shook his head. "This case should be open and shut. There's just small things that don't fit."

"Every case has something hinky." Danny reminded him.

"There's just something different...everything about this case is straightforward. So why does it feel like we're missing something?"

The car pulled up to Five-O headquarters, but the two men didn't get out. "Let's go inside, sit down, and sort this all out. By the time you go home tonight. we'll have some answers."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The next morning, everyone was in Five-O headquarters by 7:30. No one had coordinated the early meeting, but each team member had the same habit of letting cases get to them and none of them had been able to stop thinking about the case the day before. They had spent hours researching and throwing ideas around, and even though they had a good idea of who the other two gang members were, their motive was still elusive.

"Let's start from the beginning," Steve said, standing around the tabletop screen. "The gang. What do we know about them?"

"The body is Max Vang, 20, worked for Waianae Pizza as a delivery driver. He still lives with his parents; his dad is Hmong and his mother is Japanese," Kono read off her tablet. "We think the other two guys are friends he knew from high school, Patrick Kahue and Jack Wright, both locals."

"I'm not convinced it's a gang," Danny said. "It's three guys! Three boys, almost. They're not even 21."

"21 is old in gang years," Chin pointed out. "And the boys do have ties to the Yakuza."

Danny gestured angrily with his arms. "There's no one on this island that doesn't have ties to the Yakuza. It's just kids being idiots."

Lou was leaning against the wall, listening. "Danny, I don't know that they were idiots. I think they know something we don't."

"Their only tie to Yakuza is their friends from school," Steve brought up. "I haven't seen anything serious. Some shoplifting charges from their juvie record don't really prove gang involvement."

"Kahue has a juvenile assault charge against another kid from the neighborhood. There was speculation that it was gang-related, the victim had some associations to the Latino gang in the area." Chin was paging through Kahue's file, still searching for a lead.

Steve was pacing around the room, looking out the windows as he thought. "Chin, you didn't hear anything from guns and gangs?"

"Kahue was the only one on their radar, they had a file on him from a couple months ago, he had some conversations with a low-level Yakuza member. They dismissed it when nothing else happened."

Steve nodded, trusting the accuracy of the gang division's legwork. Kono pulled something up on her tablet, then digitally swept the report onto the big screen with her finger. "Take a look at this," she said.

"Emma Frasier bought her home from a short-term vacation rental service. They bought it six years ago from the estate of Taylor Inoshi." Chin's eyebrows rose.

"Inoshi?" He asked, coming closer to read the report. "As in Kaito Inoshi?" 

"His son."

"Who is this Kaito Inoshi? I've never heard of him? Steve said, also coming close.

Chin glanced at Kono, giving her a cue to explain. "Inoshi is an old school gangster from the sixties. Kaito died in the nineties and his crew pretty much went to ground under his son Taylor's leadership. I hadn't even heard that he passed away."

Steve folded his arms over his chest. "That explains the tempered glass. Inoshi probably retrofitted the house with bullet-resistant windows."

"So the house has a connection to the mob, not the victim." Chin said, pulling up more records from the house. 

"Who says?" Danno asked, "Maybe Frasier knew what she was getting into. Steve, you said it yourself, she handled the gun like a pro. Maybe she was in on it?"

"I didn't see anything in her background," Kono said. "It's just...normal. Nothing weird."

"And she hired three men...why? To frame them? No one needed to know, she could have just sat on the money herself." Steve pointed out. 

"Well, how did the intruders know to target the house?" Danny began, "They would have--"

Grover cut him off. "Back up. We don't even know what is in the house to begin with. Maybe the robbery has nothing to do with the gang,"

Kono nodded, splaying out the pictures she had taken inside the house earlier. She picked through them, analyzing each one. "There's nothing here to take." She concluded. "Frasier didn't have any fancy electronics, expensive art, nothing..."

"You're right, it doesn't add up." Steve ran his hand through his hair, revealing his confusion. "Three men who have no ties to the neighborhood show up with guns in the middle of the night to rob a house with nothing in it? The only way it makes sense is if there are gang ties."

Chin frowned. "What gang? It's too disorganized for Yakuza, and you said Inoshi's gang died with his son Taylor." 

The room lapsed into silence as the team members shuffled through papers, stopping every once in a while to look something up in a database or check a record. Steve was gathering paperwork into a file, reading and organizing as he went. finally, he let the stack of paper drop to the table and jammed a finger into it. "I want to know more about Emma Frasier. Go even further into her background. Kono, can you send me her work address? Danny, let's go for a ride."

\- - - 

McGarrett pulled up outside a floral shop in downtown Honolulu. "This doesn't seem right. She's a florist, but she makes enough money to own a house ten minutes from downtown?"

"Rich parents?" Danny suggested, getting out of the car and slamming the door. Steve just shrugged and checked his phone again before walking into the boutique. 

A woman in her seventies was standing behind the counter, surrounded by stands of leis and tasteful flower arrangements. "How can I help you gentlemen?"

"I'm Commander Steve McGarrett, Five-O. We're looking for Emma Frasier?" 

"Oh, goodness. Are you here about what happened yesterday? So tragic. Emma was going to come in, but I told her to stay home and recover." 

Steve glanced at Danny. "Right now her home is a crime scene. Any other ideas where she would go?"

"Oh dear; no, I don't."

"But she does work here?" Danny clarified.

"Yes, of course, just Emma and myself. Doesn't take much to keep this old place running. She's such a dear. Oh, my name's Lily."

"Really?" Danny asked before he could stop himself. 

The old woman chuckled. "Short for Liliuokalani."

Steve started to explain, "The Hawaiian queen who--"

Danny cut him off, "--who was the last true Hawaiian ruler and was deposed in a government-backed coup. I've heard of her." He stared at Steve saucily before turning to Lily and cordially adding, "It's a beautiful name."

"Thank you."

Danny rocked back on his heels, a twitch that came up whenever he felt like he was getting nowhere in a conversation. "When did Miss Frasier start working for you?"

"Oh, six, maybe seven months ago? My granddaughter left for college on the mainland and the very next day, Emma called about a job. She didn't have any experience, but the timing was too perfect. She is such a nice girl, and so teachable." 

Steve cocked his head to the side. "So you didn't know anything about her background, but you still hired her?"

"I didn't know nothing, she had a reference from some company she had worked for on the mainland. I interviewed her, and we got along swimmingly." The woman said indignantly. "She is fantastic with customers, and with the flowers, and she has such a kind philosophy."

Now Danny was indignant. "You hired her because of her philosophy?"

Lily glared at him. "She is a special soul, grateful for everything and everyone around her, and every opportunity. I don't know why anyone would want to harm her. Perhaps when you talk to her, she could teach you a lesson."

Steve smirked. "Thank you Auntie. If we have any other questions, is there a good number to reach you?" Lily handed him her business card and a plumeria that she plucked from a plant beside her. She handed it over with a small smile.

"Best of luck to you, gentlemen. Give my best to Emma."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Kono, do we know where Emma Frasier is staying?" Danny asked. His phone was on speaker as he and Steve got back into the car, so they both could hear.

"Give me a minute...looks like her credit card is charged at the Hyatt Inland, a couple blocks from you."

"Thanks Kono. Steve and I are on our way there. Have you found anything out about Frasier?"

Chin's voice joined Kono over the phone. "Frasier moved to Hawaii just under a year ago from California. We have employment history and financial records, everything lines up."

Steve was driving as Danny stared at the map on his phone "Take a left up here," he mumbled to Steve. "What did she do for work? Her boss said she had never been a florist before, and she couldn't afford that house on that salary."

"Her salary in California is from a software company, $86,000," Kono stated. "She had enough saved to get a mortgage on the house here."

Steve frowned as he turned the steering wheel. "Software to floral arrangements? What kind of mid-life crisis is that?"

Danny pointed to a high rise ahead of them, but was looking at the documents that Kono had sent to his phone. "Not even midlife, she's 29. That's a quarter-life crisis."

Chin's voice came on the line again. "Whatever you call it, it's strange."

"Anything else on the intruders?" 

"Nothing. They have cleaner backgrounds than she does."

Steve pulled up in front of the hotel. "We're here, guys, I'll call back when we're done." Danny got out of the car, but bent over to look at Steve through the window.  
"You getting out?"

Steve gestured to a sign. "It says no parking. And there's no way I'm letting a valet near this. Go find out where I can park."

"You're a cop, this is a cop car, you can park anywhere," Danny said, hand on hip.

"Look around. Do you see a parking spot? All I'm going to do is cause a traffic jam. Now go in and ask the nice people where I can park."

Putting his hands up in a sign of surrender, Danny turned around and walked into the hotel. While he was waiting, Steve looked at the documents on his own phone, trying to find something to quell his nagging gut. Danny came back out of the hotel and opened the car door. "Well, Steve, you're in luck," he said, sliding in. "She checked out after one night and went home."

"She went home? It's an active crime scene."

"Not to mention the smashed door and bloodstains" Danny added.

"Am I the only one that feels like we're chasing her?" Steve said, drumming his fingers on the wheel.

"She's not a criminal, Steve."

"Something's hinky." They swerved around a car, Danny bracing himself against the sliding momentum.

"Why, cuz she can shoot better than you?" 

Steve looked over to the passenger seat, not amused. "She talks like a cop, you heard her."

"I heard her reason too, she had a friend who was a cop, so what?" 

"So, something was off in her financials. I was looking at them when you went into the hotel. "

"What's wrong with them?"

"I don't know, I didn't have time to find it."

Danny rolled his eyes, not for the first time that day. "When we get there, just try to be nice, okay? Just try. For me. Can you do that?" Steve stared straight ahead at the road. "All I'm saying is, she had three people break into her house, and she watched one die in front of her. Have a little sympathy."

"You think I'm not sympathetic?" Steve asked pointedly. 

"It's not that, it's just..." 

The two men squabbled the rest of the way to the house, both easing away from the case and letting their brains take a break from the tragedy. Danny got the last word in as they pulled up to the house. "...and that's why you should get an iguana. They are the closest animal you can find with a hide as weathered as yours."

A wry grin on his face, Steve shut the car door behind him. "Finally," he muttered, seeing Emma Frasier outside the house. She was struggling to position a piece of plywood over the rectangular hole in her door where glass used to be. "Ms. Frasier!" Steve called out, jogging over. He caught the plywood as it awkwardly shifted in her grasp and began to fall.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, pushing a pair of safety glasses into her light brown hair. "Commander, I wasn't expecting you." 

"We just have a couple of follow-up questions, if you don't mind." Danny strolled up next to him as he set the plywood down. "This is my partner, Detective Williams."

"I remember you both from yesterday. Um, please, come in."

Danny stepped forward, but Steve laid a hand on his forearm. "We can talk and work. Let me help you get this up." Steve picked up the plywood and Danny reluctantly stepped in and help it in place as Frasier picked up dirty, well-used nail gun. "That looks like it's had a good life," Steve said, nodding at the air gun. 

"It was my Dad's. I got his whole toolbox." Frasier said, lettering the subject drop. The trio made quick work of the door, and Steve hefted the toolbox inside once they were done. He set it inside the entry hallway and met Frasier's eyes over the bloodstained floor. "Thanks!" she grinned, seemingly overlooking the gore. "I could have lifted that though. I'm strong enough."

"I have no doubt," Steve answered genuinely. Danny rolled his eyes. A few minutes earlier in the car, Steve had called this woman hinky, but the shared toolbox inheritance had evidently erased any suspicion.

Frasier smiled at him, "Let's go out back, there's room to sit down"

"Miss Frasier," Danny began, pulling out a notebook as he followed her outside. "Can you tell us more about your job?"

"At the floral shop? What about it?"

"Have you always wanted to be a florist?"

Frasier blushed, "Florist's assistant. And no, it's not a lifelong passion or anything. Just happened on the first day I moved here. I wanted to get something to make the house look happy, so I stopped in that shop and there was a help wanted sign, and that's all it took." Steve was nodding as Danny took notes. "My boss' name is Lily, she's at the store today. You could talk to her. Do you think this has to do with the store? Is she in danger?"

Danny answered before Steve could get in a word. "She's not in danger. We don't think it has anything to do with the store, but we're checking all the possibilities."

Steve leaned forward in the wicker chair. "Actually, we wanted to know more about you."

"About me? Why? I'm...normal!" The last word raised Danny's eyebrows. Somehow, it looked like Emma Frasier didn't believe her own statement.

Steve looked sideways at Danny, trying to read his partner's mind. "What did you do before you moved to Hawaii?"

"I worked in software, implementation, for a company in the valley." The financial documents they looked at earlier supported her answer, but it was still too vague to be completely trustworthy.

"Why did you leave?"

"I needed a change of pace." They guys waited for a second, seeing if she would elaborate. "My parents passed away. they left me an inheritance and a house, but I couldn't stay there, so I sold it and moved here."

"Why Hawaii?" Steve asked.

She hesitated for a moment. "I always said it was the last place I would go. Too many hurricanes, too expensive, not enough taquerias." 

Danny gave her a soft smile. "I know that feeling. I'm from Jersey, and the thing I miss most is the cheesesteaks."

Frasier smiled back. "Why did you come here?"

"My daughter moved here with her mom, and I followed. Never regretted it. Why did you come here, if you dislike it so much?" 

"Change of pace, like I said." 

Danny sat back, dissatisfied again at the vague answer. He had a feeling in his gut that this woman should be questioned in an interrogation room instead of her backyard. As he was about to ask another question, Steve stood up. "Thank you, Miss Frasier, I think we have what we need."

Danny grimaced, trying to hide it with a polite smile. "Actually, Steve, I had a few-" but he was cut off by his partner's sudden interest in a lean-to shed against the back of the house. 

"Emma, do you mind if I look in here?" Neither Danny nor Emma Frasier missed Steve's use of her first name.

"Be my guest. There's a lawn mower and some garden stuff." Steve wheeled out the lawnmower and got on his knees to look at the house. 

"Steve, what on earth are you doing?" Danny asked finally with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Siding's mismatched." Steve's muffled voice said. "Look at the joins between the boards. They're regular until they hit the shed, then they start being joined at inconsistent intervals."

"You're kidding me," Danny said. "You better not be taking off this poor women's siding-" Again, he was cut off, this time by a large piece of siding. Danny turned to Frasier to apologize, but she was giggling. He turned to her. "He's going to replace that."

A few more pieces of siding were tossed out, then a minute of some grunting and thumping from inside the shed. "Steve?" Danny finally asked.

A dirty Steve backed out of the tiny shed, holding a locked briefcase. "This is what they were after." He lifted the dusty case onto Emma's clean garden table without a word of apology, but she was too curious about the contents to notice. Using a hand spade he had found in the shed, Steve levered the locks off of the case. It looked as if it had been expensive at one point, but years in the wall had hardened and pulled the leather outer case away from its seams, and the brass buckles had tarnished. Throwing the spade aside, Steve opened the case. "Look what we have here."

Danny and Emma scooted closer. "Money?" Emma asked. She reached for it, but Danny grabbed her hand. There was one bundle of bills in the case, with circulation dates in the eighties.

"Let us." Danny snapped on a latex glove and lifted the bundle, shaking it slightly to clear out any dust.

"There's not much there," Steve said, taking pictures with his phone. "Honestly, I was expecting more."

"Maybe those kids were too," Emma said, glancing back at her house instinctually. "Do you think this is what they were after?"

"There's only one way to know for sure," Steve said. "Let's ask them."

\- - - 

Danny and Steve returned to Five O headquarters with the new evidence, and took some time to walk through Frasier’s financials while they ate lunch. “What do you see?” Steve challenged.

Danny ran his hands over his face. “Nothing! Like you said, it looks normal. Taxes, 401k, savings…I don’t know what you want me to see.” 

“Something’s off…seems like on every other case there is something missing in the finances, it’s never this…complete.”

“So, she manages her finances well. Nothing weird about that.”

Steve displayed some files on the big screens. “Look at these paycheck records. When I look up Fulton Tech Inc., there’s only one record of Emma working there, an employee ID. 

It’s not a huge company. Her paychecks came from this company, Utilimuse…Different company, and no ties to Fulton that I can see. In fact, it looks like a shell company.”

Danny nodded. “Right. But Fulton is a legitimate company, why would they use a shell corporation to pay employees?”

Steve shook his head, without answer. “She’s gotta be hiding something, Danno. There’s something we’re missing.”


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

While Danny and Steve worked through Frasier’s background, Kono and Chin had been rounding up one of the boys suspected of breaking into her house, Patrick Kahue. Having been through the system before, Kahue asked for a lawyer the second he was put in cuffs and was repeating his request (loudly) in the interview room they had put him in. Grover had gone to pick up the other suspect, Jack Wright, who had a completely clean record. His mom had answered the door to Lou Grover, and the boy was compliant as Lou took him back to the station--eager to go, even, to escape his mother's fury. As Lou was driving with the kid in the back, he decided to have a go. "Jack, right?"

"Yes, sir," The kid said nervously. He wasn't scrawny by any means; he had the body of an endurance athlete rather than a weightlifter, unlike Kahue. Lou had the gut feeling that he was generally a good kid.

"Sorry about your friend," Grover said genuinely. Wright just nodded, making eye contact with Grover in the mirror. "Do you know what happened?" Lou asked gently.

Wright shrugged. "IDK, someone said he got sh-...stabbed? I think." His voice cracked at the end of the phrase, making it into a question. 

Lou nodded gamely. This kid was obviously not a natural liar. "He was shot, Jack. He bled out in a stranger's house. Do you know why?"

"No, sir," Jack said quietly. 

Lou waited a few seconds. "Are you gonna ask?" Jack shook his head. "Don't you want to know why your friend was shot? See, that's odd to me. If it was me, I would want to know who did it, and why, and I would want to get some revenge." Jack still didn't say anything, but he shifted in the back seat of the car as they pulled into the HPD parking lot. Instead of shutting the engine off and going inside, Grover dug in. "Unless, I guess, I already knew who did it, and why. If I knew that..." He stared down Jack in the back seat. "...I wouldn't say a word."

There was a bit of an internal struggle, but Jack eventually took the bait. "It wasn't my idea. I know you know I was there, you probably have my DNA or something and matched it and you're just waiting for a confession. I swear, it wasn't my idea. They just told me there was money in a house somewhere. I didn't even know they were bringing guns. I needed the money for college! It's not for drugs or anything stupid."

Lou took a deep breath, shaking his head. "There are better ways to get money." He got out of the car, the opened the door for Jack to get out.

"Not for me...not for us. There was supposed to be a million bucks in that house, and we were going to search until we found it."

"What about the woman that lived there?" Grover asked as they walked up to the processing desk. 

"Patrick was going to...take care of her."

"What does that mean, Jack? Was he going to assault her? Kill her?"

"I don't know!" He exclaimed. "I didn't think it through. They just said they needed someone else to look through the house, and we trust each other." Shaking his head, Lou left him with the sergeant on duty with instructions to have the kid write down his statement. He continued into the Five-O offices, meeting the rest of the team. His stomach rumbled as he looked at their lunches spread out on their desks.

"Anything from Kahue?" Lou asked the group.

"Nothing. Guy thinks he's the toughest one on the block. Hates cops. Would rather die than give up his friends. The usual." Kono said. 

"Well, Jack folded like a paper airplane. He said Vang and Kahue pulled him into the plot with promises of a million bucks..." Lou caught sight of the case on the table. "Is that...?"

Steve whirled the case around to face Grover. "Well, it's a lot less than a million. Confirms Wright's story though."

“I was talking about the loko moko. You done?”

Steve handed the extra loko moko over to Lou and reviewed what they knew so far. "So, Kahue and Vang hear something about a million bucks, maybe from Kahue's friend the Yakuza gangbanger. They figure out where it is, then decide to go rob the place?"

Grover took over. "They didn't know exactly where it was, so they brought in Wright to help search while they held Frasier hostage. But what they didn't count on is Frasier having a gun...and using it."

"Something's still bothering me," Danny said, jumping in. "I'm still not convinced that they were working alone. What do we know about Kahue's friendly neighborhood Yakuza connection?"

Chin frowned. "Asaho Ito, 27, has a rap sheet that goes back a couple of years for petty burglary and menacing. Hasn't been to prison...yet, but most of his cohort has or currently is locked up. Gang unit thinks he's a distributor, a manager of sorts. Keeps track of all the dealers they have on the streets for upper Yakuza management. Used to be a dealer himself but he's been off the streets for a year or two."

Steve nodded. "So he's making his way up the ranks, finding his way into management. Probably hearing some secrets and stories for the first time. So he hears about the Inoshi family and their fortune, but doesn't want to share the money with the Yakuza, so he uses some high schoolers. Ito probably doesn't know the money's not there. He's been laying low, but if he's desperate for money he could come looking himself. We should put some unis outside of Frasier's house."

"Hell, he could be on his way there right now," Grover said worriedly. "We took down the crime scene tape this morning."

"And we have Frasier's gun in evidence." Danny added. He and Steve were on their way out the door in seconds.

As they slid into Danny's car, Steve looked over from the driver's seat. "Let's go, Danny. We took her gun, her door doesn't lock...She's totally defenseless.”


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Steve and Danno pulled up outside Frasier's house, checking the street before getting out. "It's clear," Danny said, locking the truck. Still, their hands were on their holsters as they approached, ready to draw their weapons if necessary. Danny knocked on the door as Steve still scanned the neighborhood. "Miss Frasier, it's Five-O," Danny called out, knocking. "You may be in danger, you need to come with us."

Emma opened the door quickly as Danny and Steve stepped inside. "What are you talking about? Are those kids coming back?"

Steve shook his head. "We have the two other men in custody, but we believe they were working for someone else, and that person may come back looking for the money."

"Oh my god." Emma exhaled. "Who? Who's coming?"

"If you can just get your things and come with us, that would be best," Steve knew he was dodging the question, but telling Emma the truth wasn't going to help her fear. "Really, time is of the essence. Can we help you get anything together?"

"No, I'll just grab my bag, we can go." Danny was going around the house, closing curtains and locking the back door. "There's not even any money...What about my house? What if they break in again?

"We'll put a couple of uniforms on the house to keep an eye out," Steve said, peeking out the window.

"I can take care of myself," Emma said plainly. The men were ready to protest, but she continued quickly packing a bag, throwing in a change of clothes and bare necessities. Danny stayed where he could watch both the front and back doors, and Steve followed Emma like a shadow. "You guys are making me nervous." Steve ignored her comment, sensing that a hollow reassurance of safety wouldn't work to break the tension in the room. "Where are we going?"

This, Steve could answer. "We'll take you back to our station until a safehouse is arranged. One of us will be with you the whole time."

"What about work?" Emma threw a pair of slippers into her bag and zipped it up, swinging it over her shoulder.

"We need some time to assess the threat against you. You going to work is not out of the question for the time being." Steve followed her back to the kitchen, where she grabbed her phone charger. "Ready?"

"Yes." She took a deep breath. "I think so, at least. This is kind of a whirlwind."

Danny opened the door and stepped outside, scanning the street. "Let's get this show on the road." The trio got into Steve's truck and Steve immediately started it, pulling away from the curb. It would be a long ride back to the station through rush hour traffic. Steve was at the wheel, so they were definitely going faster than the speed limit as they wound their way out of the neighborhood and onto the highway.

Emma was staring out the window and the lines of cars ahead of them. "It's almost worse than LA," She said as they inched along.

Although Steve mostly believed her, there was something about her that set off alarm bells in his gut. "How long were you in LA?"

"Six years."

“And before that?”

“I grew up over the border, in a small-ish town in Nevada. Went to school at UCLA.” The truck has slowed to almost a standstill and Steve itched to turn on the sirens. It was muggy outside, so Steve kept the windows up. Emma was fidgeting in the back seat, cracking her knuckles.

Steve remembered reading in her file that she had majored in computer science, but still had a niggling urge to test her story. “You majored in Accounting, right?”

“Yeah,” Emma replied, distracted. 

Steve saw Danny’s eyebrows raise at the response. Danny turned around in his seat to face her. “I took an accounting class in college. I failed it.”

Emma harrumphed and nodded; her distraction rubbed Steve the wrong way. “Emma. We looked into your background. Your academic record at UCLA said you were a computer science major.”

She sat up straighter in her seat, assuming a guarded expression. “It was accounting and technology. Computer accounting, that kind of thing.”

Danny was still turned around in his seat, watching her intently. “We know you’re lying about something, Emma. You tell a good story, but we’ll figure out the truth eventually.”

“I’m not lying! I...I just have a bad memory.” Danny rolled his eyes.

Steve stepped in. “Emma, we can arrest you for obstructing justice if you don’t answer our questions.”

“You haven’t mirandized me,” she said without thinking. 

Steve hit the steering wheel. “Things like that! You speak police. You shoot like police. But nothing in your background says police.”

“I watch cop shows.” She responded, trying desperately to keep the lies going.

The truck cab went silent. They were still sitting in traffic, and Steve kept checking his mirror. “Danny, you see the car three back in the left lane? No plates?”

“I see it.”

“Keep an eye on it.” Steve directed. He yanked the wheel to the right and into the open shoulder lane, immediately accelerating. Caught off guard, Danny swayed, but kept his eyes on the car, which was laying on the horn and trying to get over.

“You think they’re following us?” 

Danny nodded grimly. “Seems like it.” Although they had gotten a head start, the car had maneuvered into the shoulder and was following. Out on the stopped highway, they were sitting ducks. Danny didn’t know how Steve had seen the car, but there wasn’t time to get an explanation. His adrenaline pumping, he looked into the rearview mirror at Emma. 

“Okay, we need the truth, and we need it now, before my little girl ends up without a Danno.”

Both men could see the fear in her eyes. “Okay! Yes! I was a cop!”

“Were you dirty?” Steve asked, a hard edge to his voice. He pulled onto an exit, planning on finding some side streets to lose their tail.

“Nothing like that.”

“Witsec?” Danny guessed. The second she said she was a cop, his feelings toward her had shifted. He still didn’t totally trust her, but it sounded like the truth.

“My own version.” She said, still fighting to keep her secrets. “I disappeared myself, and made a new backstory. That’s what I did in LAPD, I worked making backgrounds for the undercover unit.”

“You did a hell of a job.” Steve said tersely. “But you still haven’t said why you left.”

“I was in danger.” Her eyes also flicked out the windows, watching the car that kept gaining. “This is unrelated. I have no idea why those kids came after me, or why there is money buried in my shed.”

“Your house used to be a mob home.” Danny explained. 

Emma cocked her head, “That explains the bulletproof glass.” 

“And now they think you have the money.”

“And that explains the tail.”

“Hang on,” Steve said, turning wildly again. They were on a dirt road, winding up a hill and into a jungled area.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Danno asked in his polite-but-concerned voice.

“Of course I do. We’re going to Ito’s house.”

“Ito? The man who’s trying to kill her, Ito?” Danny rubbed his forehead. Emma had blanched at the news. “And when exactly did you have this fabulous idea?”

“Since we made them. Emma’s a cop, she can take care of herself. Give her the gun in the glovebox. We’ve got to grab Ito before he runs.”

“I am not giving her a gun. She’s not a cop, she’s an ex-cop. And don’t you think we should have some back up?” Danny saw Steve open his mouth and knew exactly what was coming. “Emma is not back up. Right now, she is the victim. This guy could be planning a cop massacre for all we know. Like you said, they made us! We no longer have the element of surprise!”

Steve pulled into a clearing, where Emma could see a shabby house and an old Chevy. “Danny, you have thirty seconds to decide. I’m going in, you’re both welcome to join me.”  
Emma’s mouth hung open. “I think I’m going to stay in the car.” She said quietly. “I’m just…not ready for this.” The men took a moment to look back at her, but couldn’t spare another second to convince her. 

“Hand us those vests.” Danny said, making his decision clear. Steve and Danny quickly strapped on the bulletproof vests, checked their ammo, and took a second to case the place. Finally, they opened the doors. As soon as they stepped out, bullets started flying.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Danny immediately pulled back into the cab of the truck, shooting with his door open to protect himself. The bullets were coming from behind the old Chevy, whoever was responsible was hiding in the tall grasses. “Still think this is a good idea, Steve?” He yelled tensely.

“You’re the best shot in Newark, Danno, we got this.” Steve replied, firing rounds from the driver’s side. “Emma, put on the other vest in the back and get down.” In the spattering of bullets off metal, the boys didn’t hear her answer. “Emma?” Steve asked, not willing to take his eyes off the truck to check back on her.

“Give me a gun.” She said with determination. “Those guys from the tail car are going to show up any minute. 

Without hesitation, Danny cracked the glovebox and passed Steve’s extra weapon back to her. “You do what we say, clear?”

Emma stood ready with baited breath for the car to catch up to them. As she saw it come around the curve and into the open, she raised the gun and froze, waiting for them to make the first move. Strangely, the two people in the car didn’t do anything, simply talking to each other in the car. “Steve, they’re not doing anything. What do I do?”

“Focus on them,” Steve replied, “They’re not going to sit still forever.” He changed out his clip. “Danny, Ito’s down.”

“I’m guessing there’s two left, judging by the volume of shots.” Danny replied evenly. Emma couldn’t understand how they could make judgements and hold conversations in the middle of madness. Even though she was a cop, the only times she had shot, or even raised her gun, outside of a range had been in Hawaii—first the robbery, and now…this.   
She turned around briefly to try and see what Danny saw, trying to determine where the shooters were. As soon as she turned around, the first shot exploded behind her. She whipped around and started firing at the passengers, doing her best to remember her training. Her only cognitive thought was that for some reason, the bullets coming from the car sounded different than the ones coming from the other direction. 

“One left from the front,” Danny commented. 

“Two from the back,” Emma sputtered. She took another shot and saw one of the men jerk. The shooting stopped for a millisecond. “One…I think.” Emma had been sitting inside the car still, positioning herself behind cover as best she could while still keeping an eye trained on the car. She leaned a little further out of the car to see the man’s condition, and suddenly regretted it when a burst of bullets flew her way. She tried to pull back into the cab, but her left foot slid, throwing her off balance, and she ended up with one leg out of the cab, desperately trying to crawl back in. Before she could panic, her thigh twinged. It wasn’t too painful at first, but she felt her thigh go numb as she hauled herself back into the safety of the truck. 

“Guys…I think…I’m hit.” She gritted her teeth. “I have two rounds left.”

Steve still hadn’t moved his eyes from the front. “Danny, take care of the back. Emma, stay down,” he said simply. She nodded and tried to breathe as she stared at her thigh. It was dark red blood, dripping down her skin and slowly staining the jean shorts she was wearing. She pressed it experimentally, feeling for the hole she knew was there, under the rivulets of blood. Suddenly, as she felt the hole, the pain made itself known as well. She gasped.

Danny turned around and, having good visibility at the driver, needed only two shots to take him out of the equation. At the same time, Steve had taken out the last gunman in front of him. Emma could barely hear the quiet over the ringing in her ears. Danny walked over to the car and checked the pulses of the men. “Steve, take care of Emma.” He said sharply, seeing her prone in the back seat. 

Danny went to search through the grass for any more weapons while Steve jogged around the truck. Emma was breathing heavily, but seemed to be in control. “Is this the first time you’ve been shot?” Steve asked, gauging her cognizance.

“Uh…yes.” Her hands covered the top of her thigh, but Steve noticed blood leaking from underneath her leg as well.

“Emma, I’m just going to help you out onto the grass so I can get a better look at the wound.” She nodded, and Steve grabbed her forearms, sliding her out and helping her balance on her good leg. She hopped a few paces, then Steve lowered her gently to the ground. She was sitting up, which was a good sign, but swayed slightly. Danny came back around, grabbing the first aid kit from the back of the truck. Steve snapped on some gloves and poked around, making Emma wince. “Entrance and exit wound, it’s a through and through. Not arterial.” He muttered to himself. “Danny, grab the gauze roll and some of the square pads. Put the pads on the entrance and exit, I’ll wrap it.”

Up until now, Emma had felt detached from the wound, not quite believing that she had actually been shot. But now, the curiosity had been replaced by a pain that clarified everything. She heard Steve’s calm voice and forced herself to respond. “So…it’s not bad.”

“You’re going to be fine, Emma. I need to put pressure on it and that’s going to suck, but we’ll get you to the hospital and you’ll be fine.” He looked up at her face, and took her pulse. “Emma, take some deep breaths.” He demonstrated, his shoulders moving exaggeratedly as he breathed with her. “You have lost enough blood that you probably feel a bit woozy, huh?” She nodded. “Do you want to lay down?” Another nod.   
Danny, who had been sitting back on his heels and watching Steve work, gently took her shoulders and sat down behind her, letting her head come to rest in his lap. He wiped some stray wisps of hair out of her face and tried not to think about Grace. “Steve is a pro at this kind of thing. He’s like Rambo.”

Emma smiled, as close as she could to laughing. “Doesn’t Rambo…hurt people?”

“You can call me McDreamy,” Steve supplied, a sly smile on his face. He tucked in the end of the gauze, checking one last time to make sure it was tight. “Alright, I think we’re good to go. Danno, you drive, I’ll ride in back with her.

“I wouldn’t have pegged you as a Grey’s Anatomy fan.” Emma responded, letting herself be helped to her feet. As she tried to gain her balance, a cramp exploded through her stomach. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, wobbly on one leg. “I think I’m going to be sick.” She dry heaved once, then began to retch for real as Steve helped her back down to the ground.

“Just a side effect of the blood loss,” he murmured, rubbing her back. But as he said it, his eye was caught by the dark color of the vomit. “There’s blood….why is there blood?” 

Emma let herself fall from her knees to her back and curled up on her side. Steve knelt next to her, tugging at the Velcro on her black vest. “Emma!” Danny said insistently, noticing her eyes beginning to glaze. “Were you hit more than once? Emma!” 

Steve pulled the vest up and over her head and took a second to compose himself. There was a dark red stain on her abdomen, just above her hip, and an exit wound out the stomach. The bullet had gone through the vest, but didn’t have the momentum to exit the vest on the other side. The tight Kevlar had acted as a tourniquet, but once they removed it, the bleeding started in earnest. “Steve,” Danny muttered, out of his element.

“We need to go. Now.” He picked up Emma’s mostly limp form and hauled her into the back seat as Danny sprinted to the front. Sirens on, they screamed away from the lawn and back onto the road, retracing their steps towards the highway. 

Steve applied pressure to both abdominal wounds, and noticed Emma dropping in and out of consciousness. “Emma, sweetie, I know it hurts, but you gotta stay with me. Tell me about being a cop, huh? Tell me about LA.” 

Her eyes lolled open, then crinkled in confusion. “Scott?” A tear slipped down her cheek. “Stop it! You’re hurting me!” 

Danny drove like a madman, but glanced back every few seconds to check. Panic built up inside him but manifested itself as anger. Anger at Steve for his crazy plans, angry at himself for letting this go too far. Emma’s feeble protests sounded different than they had before. “What’s going on?” He asked, his voice tight with worry.

“She’s not lucid. I need to apply pressure, though, I can’t stop just because it hurts her.”

Emma was whimpering, still murmuring about Scott. Fear was mixed with the pain on her face, and Steve felt apprehension pulling in his own gut. Steve didn’t remember seeing any ‘Scott’ in Emma’s history, but it was evident that he wasn’t a good omen. “Stop!” She yelled weakly. “That hurts, Scottie. Please, please…I’m sorry!” Steve only pushed harder on the wound as he tried to avoid watching her face contort. 

“Keep going.” Danny encouraged.

Emma, fading back out, started to close her eyes. “Emma, no!” Steve said forcefully. “Stay with me. I know it hurts, but—”

“Stop it Scott! I mean it, I’m sorry! Stop…” Tears came easily now, parading down her cheeks as she cringed away from Steve. 

Steve tried to keep the fear out of his tone, and make his voice as gentle as he could. “Emma, you’re safe. I’m here to help you. You’re going to be okay.” Either the soothing words or the blood loss finally took effect, and Emma lost consciousness again. The sirens screamed, but inside the truck it was quiet…deathly quiet. 

“Steve, just tell me she’s still alive.”

“She’s alive. How far out are we?”

“Five minutes.”

“Call ahead.” Danny took out his phone and called 911, explaining the situation. 

“We should’ve just gotten a medevac,” Steve muttered. “Why didn’t I think of that right away.” He took her pulse, which was slowing dramatically. Blood was still leaking out around his fingers, saturating the gauze until there were no clean bandages left. “I’m worried, Danny.” 

In response, Danny pressed down heavily on the accelerator. They were close; Steve recognized the streets. He held his breath, part of him hoping it would make the minutes go faster. He pushed as hard as he could against the wounds, feeling the muscles in his arms tighten and cramp.

Finally, mercifully, the truck slowed to a stop. Danny opened the door and was yelling, but Steve’s only thought was to get Emma to the experts. He felt muscles in his arms strain as he held her out, offering her limp body to them in desperation. He set her on a gurney, perhaps harder than intended, and the gurney shivered sideways as the weight hit. Immediately, doctors and nurses swarmed the bed and took control, spitting medical terms like rap. Steve stood back, and Danny grabbed his bicep to pull him back and out of the way.

The gurney and medical team disappeared behind a set of swinging doors, and Steve sat down on a bench beside the doors, head in his hands. He was breathing heavily, and Danno started to get concerned. “Steve? Breathe, buddy.” Steve didn’t look up, but his chest was heaving. “Hey, with me. Steve! Listen to me…in, and out….in, and out…” Steve’s eyes were unfocused, but Danny could hear him relaxing. 

“She’s a cop.” Steve muttered.

“Yeah, it sounds like it.”

“I got a cop shot.” Steve was rapidly unraveling again. “It was stupid. Go ahead, say it.”

“Say what?”

“You told me so. You did, you said it was stupid, I should have listened.”

Danny was speechless. He wasn’t going to lay into Steve right now, but he could feel anger boiling at him looking for a release. Looking for an exit, he saw the truck. “I’m going to park the truck; I’ll meet you in the waiting room.” He climbed into the cab and carefully avoided looking at the stained back seat. As he drove away, he swore as loud as he could, as many words as he could, releasing some of the anxiety he was feeling. He parked and bent forward, resting his head on the steering wheel. He reached for the radio on the dashboard, and hesitated before pushing the button. “Lou, you there?”

“Yeah Danny, whaddya got?” Lou’s voice crackled over the radio.

“Emma Frasier was shot, Steve and I brought her to the hospital. We had a shootout in the backhills off Waianae Boulevard. I’m not sure the exact address, but there’s bodies.”  
The other side was silent for a second. “Are you and Steve okay?”

“We’re fine,” Danny said, thinking back to Steve. “Oh, I know where it was…uh, Ito’s house. Get his address.”

“I’ll get the team together and get out there. You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, we’re probably going to stay here…wait for news.”

“Want me to make the notification?”

Danny sighed again, thinking of the flower shop lady…Lily. “If you can get me the emergency contacts, I can make the call.”


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Danny was leaning against the cab of the truck when Lou called back. “The only contact I found was her supervisor at the flower shop, Liliuokalani.”

“Okay, I’ll call her.” Danny was exhausted, mostly emotionally. He looked at his phone screen, taking in a picture of Grace when she was five and trying to absorb some of his baby’s smile.

Taking a deep breath, he called the flower shop and left a message. As he finished, Steve came around the back of the truck. “We need a background on Emma. On the real Emma…the cop. I’ll call Kensi at NCIS, see what she knows.”

“Steve, just relax, will you? Let’s go inside and talk to the doctors, find out what’s going on first. Then, we’ll talk to the team, and we will be here when she wakes up.” 

Steve nodded, opening the back hatch of the truck bed and grabbing an old, dirty tee shirt to replace his bloody shirt. “You talk to the team?”

“Done. I left a message at the flower shop, but it’s after hours. I might swing by Lily’s house to pick her up after we talk to the doctors and get an idea of Emma’s condition.” 

After stopping by a bathroom to scrub their sticky red hands, they harangued a doctor into giving them an update on Emma. The woman was impatient, but compassionate. “Miss Frasier lost a lot of blood; her spleen needs quite a bit of repair. She should wake up a couple hours after the surgery, and we’ll monitor her vitals for a couple days until they stabilize.”

“Her leg?” Steve asked.

“…will be fine. It’s a through and through. She’s in surgery right now and will be for the next couple of hours.” The doctor paused for any questions, then swept away from the two gruff agents. 

Steve pulled out his phone and was dialing. “I’m calling Kensi.”

“Steve, you’re still going one hundred miles an hour. Slow down. Emma said she was in danger when she left LA. We need to get an idea of what that is, and if we would be causing more harm than good.” The phone was already ringing, but the NCIS agent didn’t pick up. Danny watched his partner’s face curiously, and was actually relieved to see exhaustion in his eyes instead of fire. Steve left a message to call him back, then clasped his hands behind his head, a sure sign that he was reeling from what had happened. “Sit,” Danny said, dragging Steve to the chairs against the wall.

After some manipulative words for Steve about how much Emma would need him when she woke up, Danny left to pick up Lily, confident that Steve would stay put. The drive over to Lily’s apartment was short, but enough time for Danny to collect his thoughts. He had to make time in every case to do this, to slow down and walk step by step through his memories, trying to pick out details that didn’t fit. Details like the way the tail car came out of nowhere, or that a bullet went through a bulletproof vest. And the name that she was murmuring in the truck…Scott. 

She had sounded scared of him, but also called him Scottie. Something didn’t add up. As he pulled up to the apartment and gave the notification, the thought kept gnawing at him. “Lily, did Emma ever mention anyone named Scott?”

The older woman, eyes red with tears, sniffed thoughtfully. “Scott? No, I don’t believe so.”

“Did she say anything about her life before she moved to Hawaii?” If the two women were as close as they seemed, Emma had to have revealed something telling. 

“Emma never talked much about Los Angeles. I never got the impression that it was a particularly nice part of her life, so I didn’t push. We had plenty to chatter about in the shop. She’s such a smart girl, and a good listener. I could talk for hours and she’d absorb every word, like a sponge. She’s a wonder with the flowers too. Such an eye.” Danny didn’t wonder how the woman could talk for hours; she had already taken up the whole car ride to the hospital telling him about how global warming was endangering local flowers. He hadn’t focused enough to remember which flower specifically, but talking about Emma had drawn him back in. 

“Did she say anything about past relationships?”

“She did mention something about a boy when she had to make a bouquet for a young gentleman.”

Lily looked out the window and smiled. “Oh! We’re here! Did you say I could see her?” Danno couldn’t tell if she was distracted, or if she had stopped short of telling him on purpose…his bullshit meter was shot after the day’s events, and if he was honest, he didn’t really care. He was just happy that Emma would be okay, and she had someone good to look after her.

He escorted Lily to the waiting room and she got caught up talking to a nurse she knew, so he went back to Steve.

He wanted to ask how he was, and if his head was on straight, but that wasn’t the way he and Steve worked. “Have you heard anything from Lou?”

“We were right, it was Ito’s crew that was following us.” Steve stared at the wall opposite him, not at Danny. “It’s a mess; they’re still processing. You still have your weapon?” Steve finally looked at Danny, seeing the sidearm still on his hip. “They’re sending an officer over here to enter them into evidence.” Danny nodded and sat down behind Steve, whose phone suddenly lit up. 

Steve glanced at the screen. “It’s Kensi,” he said. Danny shrugged. “Hey Kensi, I was wondering if you could help us. We’ve got a victim here, we don’t know her name, but we know she was LAPD up until a couple of months ago, then she disappeared. Yeah…Sure. And Kensi, keep it quiet. She left LA because she was in danger, and she’s hoping that she got away clean. Yeah…good. Thanks.”

“Her partner’s LAPD, right?” Danny asked.

“Ex-LAPD. He’s full NCIS now, but Kensi said he would check into it.” Steve had taken his own time to think things through. “They had armor-piercing ammo. Lou found it at the scene. That’s how it went through. I guess Ito was better connected than we thought. Gang unit is taking over the scene, getting intel on—”

Danny interrupted. “Who do you think Scott is?”

“He could be anyone. Boyfriend, brother…stalker, mob boss, dealer.” Still seated in the waiting room chair, he lapsed into silence. A minute passed, then two, then thirty. HPD internal affairs showed up and collected their guns and statements, and left again. Liliuokalani was still in Emma’s room, and doctors and nurses had been in and out of her room intermittently. Danny had been glancing at Steve, and after a couple more minutes, he was fairly certain that his partner was asleep. He rubbed his neck, feeling worry for Steve slowly draining from his shoulders. 

Danny knew the guilt of getting Emma shot had to be weighing on Steve, especially after the conversation they had in the car. In the years they had known each other, Danny knew Steve wasn’t one to cover up his mistakes or blame others for his failures. No, Steve took the full weight of his responsibility on his shoulders. Atlas, in Navy dress blues.

Both men were pulled from their reverie by Steve’s vibrating phone. “McGarrett….Kensi. Yeah. Hang on, I’m going to speaker.”

The voice of Special Agent Blye crackled over the phone. “Deeks thinks he found her. I emailed you a pic of Officer Carli Foster.”

Steve pulled up the email on his phone and drew in a breath. “Yeah, that’s her.” They could hear her relay the message, then pass the phone over.

“This is Marty Deeks. I met her a few times when I went UC, she built all the identities and backstopping. I left LAPD a few years ago, and I didn’t really keep in touch with anyone. I heard about an LAPD officer going missing, but I didn’t realize it was her. LAPD’s a huge force, it could have been one of a thousand people I didn’t know.”

“She said she left LA because she was in danger. She put together her own new identity and backstopped it so well that we didn’t find out who she really was until today. I hate to say it, but LAPD might have had something to do with her leaving.” There was quiet on the other end of the line, and Steve felt wariness grow in his stomach. “What is it?”

“LAPD were the ones to file the missing persons report.” Danny and Steve locked eyes. Suddenly, they had a new investigation. “Reporting officer is Sergeant Mia Hastings. Want me to look into it?”

“Quietly. We still don’t know what’s going on.”

Kensi’s soft voice came over the line again, “Whatever it is, you take care of her.” Danny could see the guilt, again, flood Steve’s face, followed quickly by stiff resolve.

“She’s safe, and we’re not leaving her side until we’re sure of it.” Just then, Lou came around the corner, holding four coffees. Steve looked up and nodded his hello to Lou. “Deeks, Kensi, thanks. Let me know what you find out.”

He hung up and Lou handed each of the men coffee, before stepping in to hand one to Lily, still sitting in Emma’s room. Lou appraised the two of them. “Go home.” He said bluntly. Danny and Steve stared at him blankly. “Go. Home.” Lou repeated.

Steve sighed. “She needs a protective detail, at least until we tie up all the loose ends and make sure she’s safe.”

“That’s what I’m here for.” Lou’s deep voice reverberated in a certain way when he was concerned, a way that vibrated in your body, regardless of who he was talking to. The biggest, baddest SEAL in existence was not even immune. He could handle angry Lou, frustrated Lou, impatient Lou, sassy Lou….but concerned Lou hit him hard. The men were the same age, but Lou was so damn good at being a dad that it was like McGarrett Sr. all over again. Lou continued. “Chin is back at the office tying up the case, and Kono is coming here to run security with me. She’ll be safe.”

Danny didn’t protest; he needed to have Grace in his arms sooner rather than later. He nudged Steve with his knee as if to communicate it was time to go, but his partner didn’t move. Steve looked exhausted, and blood still spotted his pants and arms. “Steve, you can’t do anything here. Take a shower and get a change of clothes. Clear your head, and we’ll meet back at the office in an hour. I’ll grab some dinner and we’ll work for a couple hours more before we go home for the night.” Danny knew there was no way in hell that Steve would just go home and relax, but the man still had some reason left in him.

Steve finally acquiesced. “Lou, keep us updated.” He stalked away down the hallway. 

“Thanks Lou.” Danny said quietly. 

Lou sat down in the vacated chair and nodded. “Keep an eye on him. He’s not himself right now.” The two men exchanged a knowing look before Danny finally turned and followed Steve down the hallway.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The sun had set by the time Steve arrived back at the station. It was normally a ten-minute drive, but sometimes Steve used those six miles to control his emotions. While many athletes say running is a transcendent experience, to Steve it was descendent. With each footfall, he pounded his stress, fears, and emotions into the pavement and left them behind.

The six miles usually went pretty fast, but Steve found himself walking the last half mile to HQ, because he had been pushed to the breaking point already today, and once was enough.

Danny's car was in the lot, and he sighed in relief. It was days like this that made him miss his days in the SEALs, when even if you didn't talk to the guy next to you, there was still a guy next to you. He walked into his office and could see Danno already looking through some digital records, two coffees steaming next to him. He shrugged out of his third dirty shirt of the day, and pulled on another tee as he joined Danno at the digital table. "You looked into Carli Foster?"

Not missing a beat, Danny replied, "Yup, got her records there. Went to UCLA and was a computer science minor. Was born in Nevada, not-so-small town that's a suburb of Vegas. Most of her background matched what she told us. I tried to be more careful about what I was looking at in LAPD, in case there was someone watching. I checked her police academy graduating class, it checks out. I didn't know how to get any other information without throwing up flags. LA's a big department, but if someone is watching for info queries it would be pretty easy for them to trace the packet…" Danny trailed off at Steve's subtle puzzlement. "That's what Jerry told me, anyways."

"That did seem like some pretty confident tech speak from the guy whose cell phone is five years old."

Danny rolled his eyes, but Steve's jest was calming for them both, a sign that both of their heads were on straight again. "Any sign of a Scott?"

"There are about a hundred 'Scotts' in LAPD, and without more specific search parameters that's all we can get. Jerry is checking social media, but so far he has not been able to find anything."

"What about anyone taken down in a UC case?" Steve murmured, mostly to himself.

"Checked that, there's another 87 that are named Scott or are connected to someone named Scott." Danny said.

"So, nothing." Steve was taking all of the information in, absorbing it before he got back in the game.

"It's gotta be someone close to her. She called you Scottie, that's a nickname."

Steve nodded steadily. "Deeks said Mia Hastings filed the police report. Did you pull her jacket?"

"Amelia Hastings, Sergeant. She's been with LAPD for seven years; she has been a supervisory officer for about 40 officers over the past two years. Carli Foster included for about four months before she…disappeared."

"I want to talk to her."

"It's midnight there. In LA." Danny, always the pragmatist. "We need to make sure she's safe here."

The two men worked through the night, checking every loose end they could think of in their case. They ran down the men in the gunfight earlier, scoured intelligence for any more potential Ito allies, and ran down the backgrounds of the three boys who had robbed the house. By five am, Danno was asleep in his office chair and Steve was finishing up a third time through everything they had. He leaned back in an office chair, testing the springs as he gazed at the full whiteboard before him.

Kono was walked in around 5:30 AM, fresh off the beach. "You're here early."

"Late," Steve grunted back. "You're early. How was it?"

"All the good spots were blown out, so I went to Waikiki and it was already infested. Five in the morning, and the tourists are out in droves. It's like they don't know how to sleep in." Kono tied her wet hair back and bent over Steve's shoulders, glancing at the file in his hands. "Mia Hastings," she read. "Who's she?"

"From what I can tell, she's Frasier's…Foster's…Emma…She was Emma's supervisor in LA. I was just about to call her. I just…can't figure out if she was in on it or not. I don't know anything about her life in LA, or the danger she's in, or who the hell Scott is."

"Whoa, Steve, slow your roll," Kono said rubbing his shoulders lightly. "Start at the beginning. You taught me that."

"Wait, you're here; who's on Emma's security."

Steve could tell she was tired, and probably had not gotten any more sleep than himself. "Duke sent guys over. Why are you waiting to talk to that LA cop?"

"I don't know who we can trust in their department."

"What does your gut say?" Steve sat silent, still staring at the file. "It's saying she's fine," Kono answered her own question. "So, call her."

Steve set down the file and sighed. "Wake up Danny, will you?" Pulling out his cell phone, he dialed and listened to it ring.

"Hello, this is LAPD Sergeant Hastings."

"Sergeant Hastings, I'm with Honolulu police department and I have some questions about a missing persons case you filed last year."

"I'll give you the information I can. What did you say your names was?"

Danny and Kono (both yawning) were listening in as Steve put it on speaker. "I didn't. I'm reaching out in confidence, and I want to ensure that our conversation will be kept as such."

"I'd like some record of who I'm disseminating information to. Also, if you are Honolulu PD, you are aware that the most information I can give you is only what is on the public record, without further judicial instruction." Steve rolled his eyes.

"We're trying to protect a witness's identity and believe that our case has its roots in LA."

"What is your name, officer? I'm afraid I can't help you without some of your skin in the game as well."

"Steve McGarret, Five-O."

"Thank you, Officer McGarret. So why are you interested in Carli Foster?" Her tone was professional, but curt.

"How do you know Carli?" Steve knew there was no way he could avoid her question for long, but he would get as much information as he could before shutting down.

"I served as her sergeant for a year. When she stopped showing up for work and couldn't be reached, I filed the report. Why would you like to know?"

"Do you have any suspicion or ideas about why she went missing?"

"Are you going to tell me why you're interested?"

Kono, exasperated, took the phone out of Steve's hands. "Look, we're on her side; we're just trying to keep her safe." Steve grabbed her wrist gently as they both realized what she had revealed.

"Carli's alive?" The voice said quietly, "And she's in danger?"

Steve gently took the phone back. "Like I said, we're keeping her safe. We think there may be a threat to her that somehow involves LAPD, and that's why we were trying to keep it quiet."

"Well, hell of a job you did there." Both sides lapsed into silence before Hastings spoke again, "I never could figure out why she disappeared. She did the UC paperwork on some big busts, but didn't have any effect on the legal cases. She was pretty well shielded from all of that. Most people in the precinct think she watched traffic cams and security videos all day."

Danny's hands kneaded his forehead, trying to wake up the brain cells that had taken their chance to rest in the short hour he was asleep. "Anything from inside the department? Complaints?"

"No, everyone loved Carli. She was pretty quiet, but everyone that knew her liked her."

"Did she make complaints against anyone?"

"Not that I remember. If she was in danger, why wouldn't she come to me?" Hastings, still processing the news, went quiet for a second. "I was technically her supervisor, but she worked pretty independently. It was more like we were just coworkers."

"What about her personal life?"

"I'm not sure. I just saw her at work and happy hours and that kind of thing," she said. The Five-O team looked around at each other…the only thing they were getting out of this conversation was more dead ends. Hastings continued, "So…she's in Hawaii? Carli?"

"Yes, but until we can talk to her more, we need that information to stay between us."

"Because she's in danger."

"Right. But she's under HPD protection."

"But you can't talk to her?" Hastings asked.

Steve clenched his jaw in frustration. "Sergeant Hastings, thank you for answering out questions. We'll call you if we can think of anything else." He hung up the phone before she was able to replay and stared at Danny and Kono. "Nothing," he huffed. "She gave us nothing."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Grover had returned to the station and finally convinced Steve and Danny to go home to rest, and Kono had joined Chin at the hospital, computer on her lap as she looked deeper into Foster's background. Compared to yesterday passing at a million miles an hour, time today was standing still. Liliuokalani, Emma's boss, had came by around noon and was still in Frasier's room, holding her hand and murmuring to her gently. An HPD officer stood outside the door, and Chin and Kono kept glancing up and down the hallway.

It was pretty quiet, and after a long day and night, Chin was nodding off against Kono's shoulder. A nurse had brought both of them coffee not long before, and after finishing her own, Kono stole her cousin's. After talking with Lou, all of the loose ends in Hawaii had apparently been tied up. But the wheels in her head kept turning because she knew that Steve's gut was still churning.

After hearing what happened in the shootout, there was tension pervading the team. It was hard to question that it was Emma's decision to get involved in the firefight, but it was Steve's original decision to go after Ito where he lived, without backup. But if they hadn't gone after him, then who knows where he could be, and what danger Emma would be, and how it might have escalated. It made Kono's head spin.

She was combing through the boys' backgrounds and financials, and felt a tug in her heart. Jack Wright, the boy who got pulled in into the plan last minute, really didn't have any money to afford college. Not that he would have the chance to go to college soon, he would be in prison for assault with a deadly weapon, and maybe even manslaughter charges if the DA didn't go easy on him.

The boy that was killed was a similar story—he was probably a pretty good kid, based on what Kono read into his background. Maybe he too was just in it for college money. Some low-level banger's story of fortune had managed to ensnare Kahue, who went to his friends and wrapped them up in the conspiracy. The only thing they should have been guilty of was stupidity. Everything escalated, too fast to stop or to think for all parties involved.

And now, for the first time since this all had started, time had finally slowed down. Not all cases went like this one, open and closed in the space of 3 days…it was exhausting to all involved, the equivalent of sprinting an entire mile. Kono still was taken by surprise when things happened so fast, when their first leads solved the case, not their fiftieth. It made the whole team uneasy, as they were so used to digging and dragging out answers from trails gone cold, or from professional criminals gone silent.

To ease this, Kono spent her time reading. Reading emails, tests, bank statements…anything she could get her hands on, for anyone and everyone involved. She was deep in a rabbit hole when she felt her attention being drawn to a dark-haired man at the nurses' desk down the hall. After talking briefly with the nurse, he started walking down the hall towards Emma's room. She watched him surreptitiously, trying to get a read on him, but the man merely walked to the end of the hall and into another patient's room. Kono rolled her shoulders, trying to release the tension that had suddenly (and unnecessarily) gathered.

She gently nudged Chin Ho, waking him from his sleep. "Hey, cuz, I need to grab some fresh air. I'm getting jumpy. You good?"

"Hmph." He rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, go." He yawned and checked his watch. "I think Steve said he was coming by with lunch soon anyways."

Chin picked up the tablet that Kono had set down and began his own process of filtering through the information, checking if anything had been missed. Emma's nurse went into the room to check on her, then left and returned with a doctor. Chin watched closely as five minutes passed, then ten. He set the tablet down on the chair and walked over to the room, peeking inside. Lily was leaning on the bed, gently stroking Emma's hand. Chin leaned against the doorjamb, "Doctor, any change?"

"She was conscious for about a minute, then fell back asleep. It's a good sign though, her responses were all within the normal range," the doctor replied, making a few notes on her tablet.

"That's great news! Does that mean she's out of the woods?"

"We'll have to do more tests to make sure, once she's fully awake, but it is a promising sign. I'll check back in an hour. You can sit with her if you like."

"I need to keep an eye on the hallway traffic, but I'll let a friend of hers know." Chin returned to his chair and his tablet, texting Steve what the doctor had said. Steve texted back immediately that he was on his way, and bringing the rest of the team with him to the hospital.

The bank of chairs that Chin and Kono had holed up in was a recess in a hallway of the ICU, steps from the room Emma had been put in after surgery. Though the recess had eight chairs, Chin's was the only one currently occupied. An army of coffee cups and snack wrappers littered the end tables, and Kono's bulletproof HPD vest was slung over the corner of a chair. A newspaper had been separated into five sections, each on five different chairs. It always intrigued the hospital staff how quickly cops could make a space their own when a friend was admitted.

This was a smaller gathering, as Emma wasn't part of HPD, but a stream of officers had been in and out of the hallway as the day went on. Now, it was down to two: the guard on Emma's room and Chin himself. And, of course, Emma. Carli. The cop, who was shot. He still couldn't believe how they had missed it. When he first found out, he had backtracked through every inch of Frasier's background. It was practically flawless, down to the name on her high school transcript.

But once he knew where to look, he saw the signs. Financial statement, like Steve had said, were too uniform. Taxes were perfect, but the IRS records were nonexistent. Drivers licenses recorded like clockwork, but not car registrations. He still couldn't figure out what had prompted her to leave LAPD without a word. He stared into Emma's room through the ajar doorway, coming up with scenarios that could have precipitated her flight. Just as his tired mind was juggling the likelihood of Emma being part of a gambling ring, Kono returned, leading Lou, Danny, and finally, Steve.

"Hey Chin." Danny said quietly, clapping him on the shoulder. The five stared at each other, then seemed to exhale concurrently.

Steve spoke up. "We can't find any risk on the island to Emma, so we'll be removing her formal HPD detail, but I'd like to keep her under observation until we hear definitively from LAPD or Emma herself that she's not in danger. I'll take over for the next couple of hours, then Danny can relieve me, then we'll figure it out from there."

"Anything back from LA?" Danny asked.

"Nothing. Carli Foster is even more of a mystery now than she was when she was Emma Frasier."

Chin nodded. "Lily is in there with her. The doctor was just in, he said she'd be waking up any minute now. We could get information sooner than expected."

Without another word, Steve left the group and went into Emma's room. Lily looked up, a peaceful look in her eyes. "Steven. So nice of you to come visit Emma."

He swallowed hard. "Lily, has anyone told you what happened?"

"Officer Kalakaua explained what happened, and Emma's identity." She took Emma's hand in her own. "I don't hold it against her. We all have run from something at some point in our lives. I'm glad she ended up with us, here."

"It seems like she had settled in okay here. I wonder if she'll stay." In the back of his mind, Steve wondered if she would pull through at all. The doctors were optimistic, but even their expert opinions couldn't assuage Steve's gut, which was inexplicably churning again.

"You will protect her, Steven. You are a good man and you will look out for her."

Her grandmotherly voice had Steve wanting to confess his sins. "Lily, you know…we didn't have to go arrest those men. It was my decision that got her shot."

"And now you have learned from your mistake," she said quietly. Steve tried to ascertain the emotions in her voice. "You will not do that again." She stood up, stretched, and cupped Steve's cheek in her hand. "It is time for me to return to my shop. You will keep her company." It wasn't a question, but a soft-spoken command, a gift of forgiveness.

"Thank you," he murmured. The old woman left with a smile on her face, leaving Steve alone with Emma.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

When Emma woke again, a couple of hours after most of the five O team filtered out of the hospital, she woke to find Steve McGarrett sitting in a chair on the side of her bed, torso slumped over and arms crossed. She blinked slowly and stared at him as she tried to sort out the fuzz in her mind. She was obviously in a hospital, but couldn't quite figure out why...gazing at Steve, she tried to place him in the memory timeline that was sluggishly rebuilding. Laying flat on her back, she could see her toes under the covers at the end of the bed, and an IV inserted in her left hand that rested at her side.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled her head a couple inches off the pillow. There wasn't pain, exactly, but the muscles in her abdomen felt abstractly like they had been shredded into ribbons, a sensation that made her briefly nauseous. She gently relaxed her neck and nestled into the pillow, letting her eyes drift closed. She remembered the shooting now, but the fear she probably should have felt was buried under sedatives and the blanket feeling of comfort that the man at her bedside provided.

Hearing footsteps, she opened her eyes again, focusing on the white-coated doctor that walked in. However, her insides turned to ice when she recognized the man. "Hello again, Carli. It's been a while." His soft voice was barely more than a whisper, but it carried poison in its tone.

"Scott," she croaked, struggling to sit up. Her mind was spinning and couldn't coordinate her arms and torso, so trying to sit up was like a black out drunk trying to walk.

Scott quickly stepped over to the bed and gently coaxed her shoulders back down to the mattress. His hands dwarfed her shoulders and she could do nothing to resist. "Oh, no, Carli, please try and relax. Your body has been through a lot these past couple of days."

"Scott, no!" Her rough voice, through quiet, had a pleading tone that made McGarret's gut clench, waking him abruptly. "Please," she added, too scared to continue.

Steve took in the scene before him quickly before standing and moving between Emma and the man. "Doctor, is there a problem?"

"And who are you?" Scott asked imperiously. The man was taller than Steve, but had sinewy muscles wrapping around his bones, taut against his skin.

"Steve McGarret, Five O," he glanced back at Emma and saw the fear that was choking her, depriving her mind of anything other than panic. His hand twitched to the sidearm at his hip. "Doctor, can I see your credentials please?"

"Oh, I must have left them in my office. I just need to give Carli a quick check."

"Then please got and get them from your office, this room is for authorized personnel only."

"Of course. I'll be back in a snap." He turned and walked out the door, Steve watching as he disappeared down the hallway before returning to Emma. "Hey, what's wrong? What happened? Did he hurt you?"

As soon as Scott had left she had shut her eyes tightly, and tears had worked their way out and down her cheeks. Steve tried again, setting his hand on hers. "Did you know that doctor?"

He could see her chest moving in a controlled inhale-exhale, and imagined she was counting to ten in her head. "Not a doctor," she finally murmured. "Scott."

Steve's breath hitched, "He called you Carli. We didn't tell the doctors your real name…" As this registered, Steve took off after the man adrenaline climbing as he ran the length the corridor. He caught a glimpse of Scott turning down the stairway at the end of the hall, and had a second to register Chin Ho jump from his chair. "Stay with Emma," Steve commanded tersely as he continued his sprint.

People in the hallway pressed themselves against the walls as Steve passed; but his focus was only on the stairway door that swung close. A thought entered his mind as he looked down the stairs: he wasn't nearly as young as he was when he started the job, and the adrenaline rush of today was pulling on already-depleted stores. But as soon as the thought had crossed his mind, another, more driven thought propelled him forward, through the stairway doors and down. He took a moment to check Scott's position, then began his full-on chase.

As Scott exited the stairwell on the first floor, Steve felt his age again. He felt himself pulling further behind, and once he exited the main doors of the hospital, he had lost the man. Security had been alerted and were just steps behind him and were looking to Steve to lead the chase, but all McGarrett could do was star across the wide parking lot before him and wish that Scott would appear.

"Alright," he said, collecting himself. He turned to the hospital security guards, "Monitor parking lot exits; check IDs. The man we're looking for likely has a California drivers' license, brown hair, somewhere around 6 foot. We'll get a picture out and get HPD back up as soon as possible. Who's in charge?"

A guard only a couple years older than Steve stepped up, speaking to the other men. "This is a level 2 lockdown, with additional security on egress options. Officer, can we assume the patients are safe from this threat?"

"We need more information to make a better assessment of the threat and will share what we can, when we can." Steve called Chin Ho quickly and confirmed that Emma was okay, then remained downstairs.

HPD arrived in minutes, and Steve left the most senior HPD officer to reorganize a security detail that had left hours earlier. He rejoined Chin Ho in Emma's room and questioned her about Scott. Anger grew as Emma gave details: Scott Carrey was a LAPD detective and had been her training officer in her rookie year. After that, Emma had transferred to the LAPD's undercover unit, using her computer science background to create backstories for deep-cover agents, and bring their fake identities to life in social media, financial history, and reputation. It was an isolating job, as no one could know what she did, and she found herself counting on her only work friend, Scott. A working relationship developed into friendship, then romance.

Emma paused at this, leaning back into the pillow and closing her eyes. "We moved in together, and that's where it got…dicey."

Steve's hand found its way to her shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. "Do you need to take a break? We can start looking for Scott with what you gave us."

She took a deep breath to center herself. "I've just…never told anyone this part. I've been Emma for so long now, and that's…that's who I want to be."

"I don't know you as anything else, Emma," Steve said, taking her hand in his. "And I know that you, Emma, are strong."

Her fingers played out on the blanket, grounding herself as she closed her eyes, then launched into the story with a sense of detachment, like she was reading it from a book. "We moved in together about three months after we started dating. And we did everything together, especially if we worked the same shifts. Scott switched between day and night shifts, and worked crazy overtime hours. We tried to spend every second we could together, so we would eat meals together, and go out with Scott's friends, who, you know…were mostly other cops. It changed about a year ago…LAPD was preparing for some big undercover cases and needed me to work overtime, and Scott got promoted to detective in charge of the night shift, so we hardly ever saw each other, and he got jealous. It didn't seem weird at the time, I just thought he missed me, and that's why he wanted to know who I was with, what I did that day, what I ate. We were just sharing details."

She took a sip of water and Steve met Chin's worried eyes. This was a story they had heard before, and it never had a happy ending. Emma rubbed her eyes before starting again. "And then one day he showed up at work, out of the blue, while I was having lunch with some coworkers. Male coworkers, of course. He pulled me into my office and shut the door so no one could see, then he grabbed my arms and just…held me there, a foot from his face, as he accused me of cheating on him.

He only stopped because one of the guys I was eating lunch with wanted to check on a project we were working on. Scott didn't have clearance, so I had to ask him to leave as we talked. Then, once we were done, he had just…disappeared. I was freaking out on the way home; he had never acted like that and I didn't know what would happen when I got home. I was ready to leave him if he grabbed me again; I wasn't an idiot, and I said those exact words to him when I walked into our apartment and saw him sitting at the kitchen counter. I thought he would get angry again, but he was just…calm. He told me he had checked out my work logs and had checked the jackets of the guys I worked with, and he believed that I wasn't cheating."

She stopped to take a sip of water, and the men waited silently for her to continue. "I was just…so happy that I didn't have to leave him that I didn't see how controlling it was. He kept checking up on me at my office when he was off shift, or when he was on shift, he would 'go for patrol' so he could stop in to our apartment and give me a quick kiss. It all seemed normal until one day I was coming out of the grocery store and I saw him in someone else's car in the parking lot. He said he was grabbing lunch and that he had loaned his car to a buddy and was in the buddy's car, but it just didn't feel right. A few weeks after that, I found a keystroke tracker on our home computer. His check-ins went from being cute and romantic to just…annoying, and then creepy. I left for a weekend to get my mind right and went home to Nevada, and he followed me all the way there, to my friend's house. He said he was just making sure I as alright, and that I had scared him, and that he wasn't mad at me. But…it scared the hell out of me, the fact that he followed me for hours, and then sat and watched me at my friend's house until he decided to come in. That Monday morning at work, I started building a cover profile for myself, erasing records here and there, and starting a new identity. I told myself it was an option, just in case one of the undercover cases went bad, and I convinced myself that it had nothing to do with Scott. I found out he tracked my cell phone and I would become paranoid that he was following me, so I just added more layers to the cover. I went on the offensive, and logged into his computer to see what he was doing, and found that he had run backgrounds on my friends and even family members I had not spoken to since my parents' funeral, and so I added another level to my new identity. And then one day, I realized that it was completely airtight, probably the best undercover identity I ever made, and that the real Carli Foster barely existed on paper anymore. The only thing keeping me in LA with Scott was my own denial of the danger I was in. So, I ran."

Her story finally finished, Emma leaned back in bed, looking at the ceiling. "I just didn't run far enough."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Emma was sleeping again as Steve and Chin gathered their thoughts just outside the room. Another HPD officer was posted outside the room, and Scott's picture was being shown to every nurse, guard, and technician at the hospital. Steve was slumped forward in his chair, forearms resting against his knees. "What day is it?"

"Sunday," Chin answered quietly.

Steve was unresponsive for a couple of minutes, then suddenly squeezed his fists into tight knots. "I want to make him disappear. I want…"

Chin put his hand on his teammate's shoulder. "Stop it, Steve. Not here."

"And no one saw?" Fury rolled through Steve's body, tightening his muscles and shaking his leg. "She worked in a precinct full of cops…she's just a kid. How did no one see what was happening?"

"Is it bothering you because of her age? Or…because of how you feel about her?" Chin said, wisely picking up on Steve's hidden emotions.

"I'm not going to say that she's not attractive. But it's not like that…I just want to protect her, you know? She's a cop, she's one of us, and someone pushed her to a breaking point and took it all away from her. It can just make you feel…weak."

Chin nodded slowly, then leaned his head against the wall behind his chair. "Steve, I'm asking you right now. Is your head on straight?"

"What do you mean?"

"As a friend. Can you do this right, or do I need to bench you. After what happened with Ito, you know I could."

Steve looked as defeated as Chin had ever seen him. "Maybe you should." His admission scared Chin; he had never seen his friend willingly back down like he was now.

"Just…stay here. Stay with her….be there. I'll get the team together and we'll get Scott Carrey." Chin stood up as Steve nodded tiredly, and he squeezed Steve's shoulder again in consolation and solidarity, before grabbing his half-empty coffee and walking away.

As Chin-ho got into his cruiser and turned it on, he was reflecting on what Steve had said, and felt his own gut churning, remembering how it felt with the brothers in blue hadn't had time for him. It was different, of course, but it was like…losing a family. And Steve could relate as well—losing his parents, then leaving his brothers in the Navy. No matter what caused the separation, it hurt.

He hadn't really known how to react when he got the news of the shootout, on the one hand it was definitely one of the rasher things that Steve had ever done, but he wasn't totally surprised. Steve had always and would always be the white knight, regardless of how distressed the damsel actually was.

This case, this damsel, was making them all reconsider just how far "being strong" could get you, before you reach a breaking point. Emma had reached hers in LA, it seemed like Steve was reaching his now. It scared Chin a little bit, to realize that things could go wrong in such a short amount of time.

As he pulled up to HPD headquarters, he saw Kono outside, talking to another cop as they ate lunch. He couldn't deny that more than once, he had wondered what would have happened to Kono in the same situation. Would she have come to him? If he wasn't in her life, would she have gone to Steve? Or would she be pushed to just…run?

Chin Ho approached her table as the other cop dumped his trash and walked away, and sat down across from her, "Hey cuz."

"Hey. What's wrong with you?" She asked directly.

"Nothing. We need to look for Scott Carrey."

Kono rolled her eyes, "Lou and I already started. We've got APBs and roadblocks up. Ran his credit cards and couldn't find anything, so I was sifting through rental car records in the last day. I'm about halfway done." She nudged the tablet with her elbow, as her hands were full with a taco from the truck up the road.

"That's thousands of cars."

"We have some criteria. Priority are California licenses, males, low occupancy vehicles…but yeah, still thousands."

"Did you check the security cameras from the hospital parking lot?"

"We did, there were a few rentals but no matches."

Chin picked up the tablet and started swiping through rental cars, glancing briefly at the licenses as he went. Scott Carrey was a cop, and judging by his police jacket, a good one, so he knew exactly where and how Five-O would look for him. He had used his passport and California ID to get on a flight, but once he was on the ground in Hawaii he had disappeared. "If I was Officer Scott Carrey, where would I be?" He said out loud.

Kono joined in, pretending to be Carrey. "I know Emma is at the hospital, under guard by now. I am controlling and dominant, so right now…I'm trying to find out as much about her life as I can. Her house, her friends, her job. Identifying information."

Chin agreed with her, "So we should have officers monitoring her home and work."

Kono licked the last of the taco juices from her fingers, "Alright, let's go talk to Lou and get some unis over." The two of them stood up and started walking to their office entrance, and Kono took a long look at him, "Seriously, cuz, what's up?"

"It's been a long week," he said, meeting her eyes. "Let's just leave it at that."

She eyed him suspiciously, taking in the bags under his eyes and the sloped shoulders, and grabbed his hand as they walked, squeezing it once before letting go. Kono could feel that they both needed the grounding human connection, something that talking just can't provide. It was the perfect medicine for Chin, who felt his shoulders relax and his mind clear. "What would you do?" He blurted out. Kono waited before answering, giving him space to clarify his thoughts.

"If there was…if someone was doing that to you," Chin spat out acidly. Even the thought made his insides twist.

"I would slice off his balls, cook them, and serve it to him on a bun," Kono said directly. Chin wasn't quite sure what to do with that—the words were said with a chuckle, but her tone was flat, here eyes were dark and the end result was…intimidating.

"For some reason," Chin replied, "that makes me feel better."

"And Scott Carrey has the same coming to him when we find him." She continued.

"I didn't hear you say that."

"Pfft. You know you'd help me."

"I'll cut off the…you know what…" Chin said mischievously as they walked through the office door. Lou and Danny were looking at the digital table, seeking patterns in the mass of information. The four of them threw ideas at each other, seeing what would stick, and followed up on every lead they had. Danny and Lou left and spent a couple of hours flashing Scott Carrey's picture in the city streets around the hospital. A detective's most relied on skill was, perhaps, grasping at straws. So, the two men were patient as they walked the streets, patient as they talked to shop owners, patient when everyone denied having seen him.

After three hours, Danny and Lou returned to the cruiser with nothing new. Chin and Kono had done the same, checking in on tourist hotspots that Carrey may have gone to. People came to Hawaii with grimy intentions, and left with the same…and a lei. The beauty was irresistible to any outsider.

Maybe not…any…outsider. The other team didn't come up with anything either. When Chin and Kono returned to the office, Lou had gone home to his family, but Danny was nursing a beer in his office, still looking over case files. Chin poked his head in, "Hey, you heard from Steve today?"

"No, I texted him a couple of times but he never replied. I was going to swing by his place when I hit bottom." He wiggled the beer bottle, about two inches of amber liquid swishing inside.

"At the hospital today, he didn't look too good," Chin brought up. "He didn't come to HPD, he didn't check in with anyone…" He didn't say it, but it was clear. I'm worried about him.

Kono, Chin, and Lou sat in the central meeting area of the office, staring at screens. A week had passed since Officer Carrey surfaced and Emma had been released from the hospital; she was staying in a hotel room under police surveillance, but everyone involved knew it couldn't last forever.

They had reached out to LAPD a week ago and, after Scott Carrey's actions, he had been readily dismissed. No one in LA had heard from him, but he hadn't been spotted on the island either. The atmosphere was tense with worry, both for Emma, and for Steve and Danny, who had spent the last few days defending their decisions and the shootout to various higher ups. The rest of the team alternated between checking BOLOs and checking over their shoulders. They were sitting on their hands, waiting for Carrey to make a mistake.

As the afternoon lengthened, their patience shortened. Chin was the first one to break the silence. "What do we do when we find him? He hasn't done anything that we can really put him away for. He hasn't laid a hand on her, he's only seen her once, and he came here legally. Emotional abuse is hard to prove in court, even in civil court. The worst thing he has done so far is rent a car under an assumed identity, if he's even done that. I hate to say it, but Emma is the one that's going to end up in trouble if we press any charges."

Lou nodded. "I thought of that. We've got a restraining order against him, so if he violates that we can take him in, but in order to press any charges Emma needs to be Carli again, and there's a lot of things that Carli would need to answer to."

Kono rubbed her forehead, like she was getting a headache. "Even if he breaks the restraining order, that would be what, a fine, a couple months of jail time?"

"She came 2500 miles away, and he still came after her. There's no way that a couple of months of jail time is going to keep him away," Lou said directly, "We've all seen it before."

Steve and Danno walked in from their deposition, the latter loosening his tie. "If I never see another lawyer in my life, it will be too soon."

Kono looked alarmed, "Is someone pressing charges?"

Danny shook his head. "Just the department covering its ass. No worries. Anything here?"

"Nothing." It hung in the air like a fog, blanketing everyone in dissatisfaction. In the middle of a case it could be chaos, but after a while, leads shriveled away and there just wasn't any new information, so the team sat and stewed, surrounded by all of the information they had gathered.

Steve was checking messages on his phone as he unbuttoned his dress shirt. "Shit….Shit!" He ran into his office, the others trailing behind. Steve was typing furiously at his computer, ignoring everyone.

Danyn nudged his shoulder, "Share with the class, Steve?"

"Emma slipped her protection detail…she left the hotel room and disappeared."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"She disappeared," Kono repeated flatly. "Another identity?"

Chin was already typing, searching cyberspace. "Nothing on Emma's credit cards, and she transferred her funds somewhere I can't find them. We can get cyber on this but It will take a while."

Steve's elbows were on his desk, forehead in his hands. "Get notification to the airports and ports, get a bolo out."

The team exchanged concerned looks, and silently elected Danno to speak. "Steve…are you sure that's the best idea? I mean…she's not...she's not a perp. She's just scared."

"Yes, I'm sure. We need to know where she is in order to protect her. If she wants to be safe, why didn't she stay under HPD protection? Why didn't she call me? We're going to find Carrey, and we're going to put him away," Steve said tensely as he ran his hand over his head. His hair was messy and a millimeter longer than it normally was, but by Steve's standards it was a foot, a glaring sign that his routine had been compromised. "She's scared," he repeated. There was a moment of silence as he processed everything.

Lou put a large hand on Steve's shoulder. "Maybe it's the best thing for her. Fresh start, you know?"

Steve shrugged it off silently as he felt the team's gaze waiting for his response. He felt a fight in his chest, begging for him to pull her back, back into the place where he could watch over her, the place where he could put up walls around her…and shoot anyone who tried to hurt her. But at the same time… "I just picture her, you know, starting over in a new place. Forced to leave her home, again, because some asshole teens wanted money. I mean, how is she supposed to live a normal life when she's constantly checking over her shoulder for…him?"

"It's her decision, Steve," Kono reminded him, "She gets to make the choices in her life, she's taking control where she can get it."

Finally, Steve felt himself giving up. "She's making herself feel safe. Fight or flight, right?" The others nodded. "Okay, yeah. Um, go home. Take some time, take care of yourselves, yeah?" They nodded again.

Danno tilted his head curiously. "Steve, you good? Want me to give you a ride?"

"I'm good, I'm fine, don't worry about it. I'm gonna, I'm just gonna go home. Maybe go surfing. Surf report?" Obviously changing the subject, he looked to Chin and Kono.

Kono nodded quickly, "Yeah, they look good. Diamond head has some crests, but I was going to check out the bowls tonight."

Steve was gathering his things, "Yeah, maybe I'll see you there. Like I said, everyone, go home, get out of here."

Danny nodded and flapped his hands, shooing them out of the office. "You heard the boss, early release. Go get your vitamin D and get some grub."

The team split and all went separate ways, but instead of driving home, Steve felt himself pulled in the direction of the flower shop. He parked outside, and his heart thumped loudly as he saw Emma's silhouette inside the store. When he went to the door, it was locked, and when he rapped lightly on the window he saw her tense. For a moment, he thought she would turn him away, but she strode over and unlocked the door. "Steve," she greeted cautiously. "Come to arrest me?"

"Where's Lily?" He replied, diffusing her tension.

"She insisted on making me a lei before I left." It sounded like a complaint, but Steve could see the love in her words. It was obvious that Lily was Emma's best friend on the island, and in a second he realized how scared she must be to leave this shop and this life behind her.

"So, you're leaving again. You're running?"

"I am."

"And you have what you need?"

"I do." Lily bustled out of the back room and placed the orange ilima lei over Emma's head, kissing both of her cheeks.

"You," she said to Steve, "Out."

He bowed his head, "I'll be waiting outside." He leaned against his car and tried not to watch the two women through the window. Although Steve had expected tears, they simply held hands and spoke to each other, Liliuokalani occasionally cupping Emma's cheek in her dry palm. Finally, Emma exited the shop and approached Steve.

"Need a ride to the airport?" He asked lightly, "I know a shortcut."

"I'm not going to the airport," she replied. Finally at a loss for words, Steve stared at her. She looked away for a second, but then met his gaze fiercely. "I did a thing."

"A thing," Steve repeated.

"It's not entirely legal," she continued. His eyebrows rose, but he stayed silent. "I found him. I pulled a list of…" she cut herself off, taking a deep breath. "You don't need to know how I did it."

Steve was unable to contain himself. "Emma, that's great! That's…but you're not staying?"

"You don't have anything to hold him, do you?" When Steve didn't respond, she smirked. "That's what I thought. This is me, getting a head start."

"You don't have to go!" Steve blurted desperately. He didn't know where the emotion was coming from, only that it was there. "You can stay in Hawaii, you can move in with me! I'll make sure you're safe."

"I can't move in with you."

"Well, then, we'll find you another place. The whole team will help. You can keep your job at the shop. You can keep Lily." Finally, he saw tears form in her eyes, but they were tears of frustration.

"Steve, stop! You don't understand. I need this. Hawaii…it was never home for me. As soon as those boys stepped through my door, I lost it. I lost the security that the island was giving me, and the easiest way to get that back is…to leave."

"You can stay, you can fight." He stepped toward her, but she held out a hand to stop his advance.

"I can't fight right now."

"I'll help you."

She rolled her eyes and threw her hands up. "You're useless." But she could tell that he was only trying half-heartedly to get her to stay, not able to give up.

"So, there's nothing I can do?" Steve asked.

"Of course there's something. Go arrest the bastard."

Steve smiled darkly, "Looking forward to it." He paused again, then let himself really look at her. Her strength, her beaty, her fierceness. "So, this is goodbye?" She nodded, and, at a loss for what to do, he offered his hand. She shook it, a wry smile on her face. "Goodbye, Emma."

"Danielle," she corrected. "Steve, I really appreciate everything. Seriously, everything."

"Well, Danielle…" the name felt funny on his tongue, "I'll do it again. You just say the word."

"Bye, Steve." He was the one to walk away, slipping into the driver's seat and pulling into traffic without looking back. It didn't sit entirely right with him, leaving her on the edge of the road, but he put it out of his mind as he called Danno.

"Hey, Danny, I'm picking you up in fifteen….yeah, yeah…we've got a perp to put away."

Well folks, that's the end. I really hate cliche endings and happily-ever-afters, so...sorry if that's your thing. This was my first H50 story, but check out my ff.net profile for NCIS, Criminal Minds, leverage, and SVU stories. Thanks for reading!


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